Your Guide to Budgeting, Credit and Debt Management Strategies

Learn tactics to make and manage a budget, understand credit scores, and manage debt to improve your financial health.

02:02Budgeting Basics: Personal Finance Nerd Elizabeth Ayoola discusses how you can create and stick to a budget. She explains how to use the 50-30-20 method to allocate your income, gives tips on how to adjust your budget to fit your needs, and methods for budgeting and stretching your paycheck when it arrives at different intervals, like monthly or biweekly.

13:35Credit Scores and Credit Reports: NerdWallet writer Lauren Schwahn breaks down the basics of credit scores and credit reports. She explains how to get negative or incorrect information off of your credit report, how to get a higher credit limit, and how different sources of debt can affect your credit. She also discusses the differences between good debt and bad debt.

25:59How to Manage Debt: Elizabeth shares strategies you can use to manage debt in order to improve your financial health. She covers debt to income ratios, snowball and avalanche methods of debt repayment, debt consolidation, how to allocate extra income from side hustles, and the legal process of bankruptcy.

If you’re looking for an app to track all your money in one place, then check out the free NerdWallet app: https://nerdwallet.com/app

In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: personal finance tips, budgeting, managing debt, credit scores, financial goals, 50-30-20 method, expense tracking, credit reports, debt-to-income ratios, snowball method, avalanche method, debt consolidation, financial health, paying bills, budgeting strategies, income tracking, variable income, saving, debt repayment, bankruptcy, debt settlement, side hustles, financial discipline, credit utilization, emergency funds, and financial planning.

To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com.

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